Shark Park hosts an impressive line up of luxury yacht owners and crew!

The team at Shark Park have been privileged to host a number of VIP's over the last two weeks. Unfortunately the weather and water didn't play the game and we had no tigers. The crews were however entertained by the ever present blacktip pack. On many occasions we had four species of shark on a day: raggie, dusky, blacktip and whale shark.

Blue Wilderness team in Europe and the U.K. - like fish out of water!

The team from Blue Wilderness, lead by Mark and Gail Addison, headed for Europe last week where they were hosted in Belgium by Steven Van De Voorde and his wife Elke from Wild Water. Steve and his team were incredible and the setting for our talk was the fantastic Aquatopia Aquarium in Antwerp. Steve spoilt us rotten and it was with a heavy heart that we left. Thanks so much to all of the incredible people we met - Belgium rocks and we will be back! Special thanks to Francois and Bert - the heart and soul of Steve's team - for a great time. A warning to any South African wanting to drink Belgian beer - it kicks!!

After a brief meeting with legendary Belgian freediver and all time nice guy Fred Buyle at Brussels airport, it was off to Birmingham in the U.K. for the Dive Show 2009. The show organisers, Diver Magazine, put on an incredible show and the resounding success of the show will no doubt make a huge contribution to lifting the spirits in these tough economic times.

The highlight of the show, for us, was the legendary Captain Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd and his inspirational, passionate and insightful speech. The Captain galvanised the audience into action and there is no doubt that our oceans and its inhabitants need him to succeed in his mission.

From a Blue Wilderness perspective, the conservation bodies exhibiting at the show all did a fantastic job and it is great to see this vital work in such good hands. Having said that, they all need our help - so don't just sit back and expect things to happen - get involved!

Marshall Law returns to Shark Park:

Swimming sensation Peter Marshall returned to Shark Park after nearly a year today. Pete had set the world shortcourse record for the 50m backstroke at the Fina World Swimming Championship meet in Durban less than 24hrs ago. The team at Shark Park applaud Pete on his success and wish him well with his swmming in the future.

Pete enjoyed the sharks at Shark Park around the same time last year and he organised a huge contingent of international swimmers to join him this year or a day of fun.

The weather was fair and the visibility good as the swimmers had a great time in the water with the sharks.

Billy Bates celebrates his birthday with the Blacktip Pack at Shark Park!

Billy video's one of the Blacktip Pack on his birthday dive at Shark Park:

The team at Shark Park hosted Dave (aka "Billy") Bates at Shark Park for his 68th Birthday dive. "Billy", as he is affectionately known to the dive community and kids, drives down from Johannesburg to Aliwal every weekend and has done for an eternity. Billy is a diving legend in South Africa and his passion for diving has not dimmed over the years. Happy Birthday Billy and I am sure you have another 68 in you. The team didn't have great visibility but the 40 blacktips more than made up for it. The team had awesome whale and dolphin encounters to and from the dive site.

Tigers back at Shark Park and the Blacktip pack healing up nicely after the fishing onslaught!

The shark diving at Shark Park has been rather sporadic with the prevailing weather pattern. Those times that we have been to sea have offered some fun dives and great shark interactions. With the low water temperatures we have had tigers but the interactions have been a far cry from the warmer water activity. Still, we have had tigers, duskies and blacktips as the players. The Blacktip pack are healing up quite well from the fihing onslaught and we are always amazed at the healing power of sharks.

KZN Sharksboard kill two white sharks and sardines in KZN on their return south

The Sardines made a welcome return to KZN beaches over the last week on their journey south. The teams at Shark Park have had great dives with the Blacktips, duskies and odd tiger this past week but the really sad news is that Sharksboard senselessly killed two white sharks at their Zinkwazi installation last week. The two sharks were caught on separate days and measured 4.4m and 2.8m respectively.

Shark park delivers four species of shark in a day:

The activity at Shark Park has been good for this time of year and helped no doubt by a better weather pattern so far this year compared to last year. The water temperature dropped to a chilly 15 celsius and this scared the living daylights out of the tigers. So far only one little girl has made it back and she is very shy. The good news however is that the Blacktip numbers are still at maximum, the duskies have arrived and although the raggie numbers are no where near the hundred or so of last year we are regularly seeing more than twenty.

One of the highlights of the last few weeks has been being involved in the East Coast Radio ( www.ecr.co.za ) competition "Durban's No.1 Dare". Each contestant has to face their fear and conquer it. This competition is a celebration of the woman in our community for Woman's Month. Kajal Parsuram had a fear of the open ocean and to top it all we added 30 blacktips to put her under even more pressure. Kajal did extremely well in 25kt winds and raging seas with the blacktip pack bumping her and brushing past her. You can vote for Kajal on www.ecr.co.za .

Special thanks to the team at East Coast Radio, Jeep Apparel (always) Sijmon de Waal and the rest of the Blue Wilderness team for making this such a fun day.